Thursday, 28 July 2011

After seeing a write up in the weekly paper about the Onekawa School holiday programme putting on a concert for invited guests, both Rie and Irene had the idea to phone up and see if we could get an invite for our children. It was agreed that we could attend their rehearsal. Although it was a very brief rehearsal, our children enjoyed the occasion of sitting on the tiered seating and later having their afternoon tea alongside the older children. We dodged the showers of rain and managed to stay dry getting there and back.

Red Nose Day is a national fundraising campaign that celebrates our communities, embraces the light-hearted Kiwi culture, and supports children across New Zealand. A simple idea created over two decades ago, the campaign encourages everyone to let go, laugh, and be silly...all for a serious cause.

On Friday 15th July it was Red Nose Day in New Zealand. As part of celebrating and drawing awareness to the day, I got the laptop out with the children, and googled the trademark Red Nose song. "You make the whole world smile with your little button nose". Starting off with just Jaz, Emily and Rionagh many more children came over and showed an interest and were asking questions. We were listening and watching the song sung by Anika Moa. When the song finished, the children kept asking for it to be played again and again. We then got the red face paint out and painted our little noses red! The children had so much fun!

Friday, 15 July 2011

I will be away for a four weeks' field practicum at EDUKIDS. The diverse experience of learning can be a fun as well as development of dispositions. The teachers, parents and children at KIDSPACE really taught me a lot of lessons different from what I learned earlier. Meet you all after 4 weeks.

Tuesday, 12 July 2011

One morning, I asked the children 'who would like their face painted?'. "Meeeeeeeeeeee", was the response I got from a number of children. As I collected the paints and brushes, the children crowded around the wooden seating in the middle of the playground. I painted Ruby and Emily's first as they had shown an interest right at the beginning. The whole dynamics of the atmosphere outside, and the children's play changed. As the children transformed into lions, cats, tigers, and butterflies, their imagaination ran wild. The children were roaming around like the animal their face was painted as (most of the children were tigers as they liked what other children had been painted as). The children had the choice of many different colours, so we had yellow noses, purple whiskers, green eyes etc. The children had a great sense of fun, and it provided them with more opportunities to interact with each other and play 'made up' games together.

Yesterday afternoon, we had a special afternoon tea for Rochelle. It was in celebration of her Wedding this weekend. Rochelle wore a special veil (which are new to our dress up area at KIDSPACE), and blew out a candle on a yummy chocolate mud cake, as we sang 'Happy Wedding Day To You'. We had a shared morning tea of yummy fresh fruits and chocolate cupcake with sprinkles. Congratulations for your special day this weekend, and all to you and Guy for the future ahead.

Poesy had a wonderful learning experience yesterday. In just a nappy and KIDSPACE t-shirt, Poesy explored paint and messy play!

To begin with, I just tipped the paint in front of Poesy's legs (within reach), to see what she would do. Not fazed by it, Poesy used only one finger to dip it in the paint, and do a taste test. Not bothered by the taste she started to use her hands a bit more. I used my fingers to smear some paint on her feet and on her leg. Poesy liked the feel of it. She began to copy me. She dipped her hands in the paint and stared at her hands in fascination. I then introduced some orange colour and Poesy watched as orange spots dripped onto the green. She knew straight away where the new paint was, and what to do with it, because she picked up a huge clump of it.

I then introduced some little flower stampers and a roller. Straight away, Poesy took an interest in these. Nanny Monica even put a flower on her head, and she loved it. This is a special experience for Poesy, as well as her teachers. I was excited to watch her explore, be curious and amused and simply having fun getting messy! At one point, Poesy had an audience as some of the older girls were so excited to watch her 'paint', and thought it was cute that she had paint on her nappy. After Poesy had finshed exploring the paint, we ran a warm bath in the bathroom and she enjoyed splashing in there and getting all nice and clean before a bottle and bed :)

Infants/young children see, hear and participate in creative and expressive happenings in their own way, for example, by putting their hands in paint, clapping their hands and enjoying creative actions (Te Whariki, Communication).

Monday, 11 July 2011

Last week, Irene sorted through the dress ups, and took some home to mend.

Ataahua and Isabella waited eagerly for their return, and were pleasantly surprsed to discover, that not only had the wedding dresses been altered, but Irene had also made some lovely veils.

Both girls spent a lengthy time involved in their dramatic play, acting out wedding after wedding.

Ataahua and Isabella, are developing an increasing ability to play an active part in the running of the programme; as well as an increasing confidence and a repertoire for symbolic, pretend, or dramatic play. Monica.

Thursday, 7 July 2011

Today we took a group of older children to visit the Planetarium at Napier Boys High. This was an extension of our Matariki celebrations. We got to see the Seven Sisters constellation that the Maori associate with Matariki. First we watched a DVD about astronauts in their rocket ship in space. The children thought this was really funny as it demonstrated what happens when there is no gravity to hold things down like on earth. Watching the astronuauts eat their kai was especially funny. Next we went into the planetarium and Gary operated his special equipment to replicate the night sky at 6pm tonight. He then gave a very informative presentation about the planets, stars and constellations that are showing in the night sky at the moment. This learning experience provided the children with an opportunity to explore about science, physics and the world around them in a meaningful context.

In support of Ainslee's activity in which the children made Matariki star mobiles for the Maori New Year, I thought it would be a fun activity for the children to make a "moon fish". A fish character from our visit to the "Songs of the Sea" to join the stars.

Using collage pieces of tin foil and orange crepe paper, the children created our "moon fish". The children really enjoyed this fun activity in which they demonstrated their creative skills, perseverance, fine motor skills together with working along side their peers. The children were also able to revisit their previous learning from their visit to the "Songs of the Sea" through which we were able to discuss the story on the creation of the moon fish.

Wednesday, 6 July 2011

Tuesday, 5 July 2011

Joshua must be following in his dads footprints, as a builder! This morning, I saw Joshua take a real interest in the carpentry area. This hasn't been the first time though. This seems to be an on-going interest of Joshua's, along with construction. Joshua expressed to me that he wanted to make an aeroplane. Joshua had already put two bits of wood togother (as wings of the aeroplane) but needed some assistance with hammering the nail in. He couldn't balance the wood, the nail and get the hammer steady, all at the same time. So I held the wood for Josh as he held the nail and hammered it. The nail went through the first piece and a little bit into the piece below it. Joshua was already on his way to creating his aeroplane. He told me that he had other pieces he needed to find as well. Joshua is really good at extending his own learning on things of real interest to him, and that is when I see him really focused on projects etc,

Last week I set up a creative experience for the children to create star mobiles representing the Matariki new year. It incorporates the seven stars, also know as the Seven Sisters.

Following our Matariki teaching guide, I showed the children the activity in the book and we began collecting the things we needed, including coloured paper, cut outs of stars. string, pieces of cut up straw, glue, glitter and the laminator. Zoe, Donnagh, Mollie, Hannah and Ruby W all chose what colour they wanted each size star to be and began decorating them with glitter. We did this part before lunch, as our stars needed time to dry before we could laminate them. After lunch we continued creating our star mobiles. It was a long activity that needed concentration and careful attention. The children worked brillantly to create their mobiles and put their own personal touches on it. What Donnagh enjoyed the most was cutting his stars out. He had mastered a great cutting technique with the scissors. Ruby wanted to laminte everything she could get her hands on, including the string! She confidently fed her stars (and others) into the laminator. Mollie was focusing more on her fine motor skills with threading the hole punched star on to the string, followed by a tube of straw then another star, and so on. Hannah enjoyed putting a range of coloured glitter on her stars and talking about the different colours. She enjoyed feeling the little bumps the glitter made after they were laminated. The mobiles were a huge success and the children were very proud of what they made. I have displayed them in the art room, above the kai tables if you want to check them out!

The children were engaged in a project that had many different learning outcomes, including: exploring astronomy with a bi-cultural focus, creative arts and expression, perseverance, fine motor skills, using a range of medias, working individually along side a small group of peers etc.

KIDSPACE logo

Academy of Excellence

Welcome

Kia ora, welcome to our KIDSPACE blog.

We hope this blog will provide a window into our wonderful world of KIDSPACE Quality Early Learning Centre.

PLEASE give us your ideas or suggestions in the comment space at the bottom of each posting or click on 'feedback' in LABELS below this welcome. You won't see your comment on the blog immediately as all comments come through the KIDSPACE email which we check daily.